Dave Hatfield

All interesting. We had lunch today with amongst others friends who have lived in France for over 30 years. Tom is a retired Professor of Sociology who is bilingual. His take on the BA is that 'proper' or not most French use it with gusto! His opinion is that the French middle classes are very fond of making up very narrow social rules which only they know about. When 'someone' doesn't follow these they are 'out'. Seems to me that I've met a lot of these same rule making people in the USA, UK, Germany & .... over a number of years. Tom's best anecdote was, many years ago, having said 'Bon Appetite' to a very elderly gentleman he got the response: "Bon digestion!'

sigh... is chivalry truly dead? Wasn't/ isn't just in France. Just plain good manners. Busboy has the right idea. These days given liberation & all it probably doesn't apply. A wider interesting topic might be how manners are evolving, or not, in this day & age.

Think the BA stuff is BS. Do believe in the old days it when I first started coming to France it was said more by waiters and not much 'en famille', but now I hear it everywhere. At table a lady should never HAVE to pour her own wine. The nearest gentlemen about should do it for her. Unless, that is we're being really formal and have a servant/sommelier to do it for everyone in which case nobody pours their own. Discuss away so long as its favourable. Criticism comes in the car on the way home.

GG - no bacon in a classic Caesar. Lots a croutons though. This is not to say that you can't add as much bacon as your heart desires. For my favourite Cobb salad, however, the more bacon the merrier.

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a nation of fine diners. I suppose France comes the closest, but even there I doubt most people have much experience of haute cuisine. Historically most French people ate the peasant cuisines of their regions. ← Well I'm not sure there is one either, but we certainly are not it. I'm a bit surprised that more people didn't pick up on that point. I was trying to be as provocative as possible with sandwiches & salads as well as insulting our dining habits. Was also trying to get the discussion off of its high intellectual plane & down to earth. Guess I'll have to be more forthright in my put downs in the future.

The classic wine based cocktail, if it can be described as such, would seem to be the humble kir or it's upmarket cousin the kir royal. Cassis is traditional as the flavouring, but a whole range of other flavours are used. What a great way to improve the taste of poor wine.

Simplistic reply. Salads and sandwiches. Although neither originated in the states I think we have made both our own. There is nothing in my experience quite like the American sandwich; nor does anywhere else (unless deliberately copying) offer anything approaching an American salad bar with it's plethora of ingredients and dressings. Admittedly not the pinnacle of fine dining, but then I would contend (sweeping generalization) that we are not a nation of fine diners. The sandwich and the salad, it seems to me, suit our national character. (whatever that is!)

Lunch today Front: Roche baron Left side: Fromage de Montagne Rear: bleu de Pays Center: Cantal vieux Plus a few cornichons. Wine not shown.

Just a note to say that I made the curried parsnip soup as described in RecipeGullet and it was delicious. Next time I make it (And there will certainly be a next time) I'll probably up the quantities of spices slightly to suit our personal preferences. Linda especially likes her curries strong. Well done Rover! Any more gems for us?

Lucy - nice to see you back! Great picture as always. I got very confused yesterday when we went to some French friends for their special meal. We had a nice soup, home cooked foie gras, a capon with an apricot farcie, potatoes & chestnuts then our cheese. All very nice & not surprising. But... then we had not galette des Rois, but a covered apple pie with eau de vie which our hostess said was THE traditional dessert dish for Epiphany. She said the recipe had been passed down in her family from her Mother & Grandmother. Certainly, it was delicious. Now I'm confused. I couldn't out of politeness ask about galette. Can anybody help? Local custom? Family tradition, perhaps?

Don't forget to crush the juniper berries before throwing them in. If you don't you won't taste them at all. Personally, I'd add 6-8 of them, but then I like juniper.

Smithy - Assuming that these are pretty normal ham hocks there are lots of ways to use them. First cut off the skin & most of the fat underneath. The skin can be used to make great crackling in the oven or you can make couine (sp?) out of it, see Wolfert's SW French cooking for a recipe. OR you can boil some then use it in a cassoulet; see my recipe in Recipe Gullet. The hock itself can be used in said cassoulet Or can be used to make pork & beans or can be slowly spit roasted (very popular in Bavaria) in fact you can leave the skin on for spit roasting. Or you can make a great stew (daube to be more up market) with some veggies & green lentils. I think you're lucky to have found them and can do some nice hearty winter dishes using the hocks as a key element.

I think I would add a fourth type of restaurant to Dave’s list, which are the see and be seen ‘branché’ type places, which are probably more the kind of restaurant that was referred to in the opening post in which Russ Parsons said he had a hard time telling what part of the world he was in. Places like Budda Bar, La Maison Blanche, Hotel Coste, Georges, Kong, Man Ray, ect. I think if you were to eat in any of the above you might be left with the impression that Paris can seem a lot like New York or any other world capital. ← Spot on! Thanks for the great add.

Great topic Paul here's my two centimes. First, a qualifier or so. I don't live in Paris so don't pretend to the expertise possessed by those who do concerning the current restaurant scene. Also, I'm very suspicious of 'cutting edge' cooking a la today's big name chef's. Also, like Ptipois I'm not sure exactly what Parisian cuisine is. If I consider cuisine in France I'm pretty happy with what I find to eat and what I read about. If anything I think I detect an overall improvement over the past ten years. A move back to real food, a move back to balance and above all a move back towards taste over innovation. Back to what I regard as the roots of French cuisine. Great ingredients. Meticulous preparation. Appropriate cooking methods. Attractive presentation. Above all an intense effort to bring out the best in taste, flavour and texture possible with a given set of ingredients. I think I see this happening all around France as we try restaurants of all calibres and price ranges. Certainly at the high end, the starred places, we see some sublime evolution more than revolution. Even the unpretentious places seem to 'have a go' at something new and out of the ordinary. Within the context of France's culture we find that most natives don't want too much change in their food. They seem to like continuity. They appreciate innovation, but are suspicious of novelty. Thus change happens relatively slowly or at least it seems to to us. I'm sure things happen more quickly in the cities. Paris is almost a different country - yet. I would suspect that a very high percentage of Paris restaurants have menus based upon regional French dishes. The French, like so many of us, hanker for their roots and one way to revisit them is via food. I guess what I'm thinking is that there are at least three restaurant Paris's. The tourist Paris of big Mac', chain or semi-chain restaurants & the like. At the opposite end the starred, reviewed, talked about cutting edge places of interest to the really dedicated food lovers & adventurers of any nationality. Then there are the restaurants which to me form the heart of 'Parisian cuisine' solid, traditional yet innovative in their own deliberate way. Obviously, these are the bulk and long may they live. Do I know I'm in France when I go to a restaurant? Maybe not always, but... I do know when I'm not in France while in a restaurant? Yes! Try though they may nobody I know of seems to be able to truly replicate the ambience of a real French restaurant.

Judging by the number of whole uncooked foie gras that all the supermarkets seem to sell quite a number of the locals seem to like to prepare their own. I agree with John that its hard to tell the difference between duck & goose. Madam Boobie up the road where we get our duck foie gras says that she doesn't do goose foie gras any more because the geese are a pain in the neck to raise. Apparently the geese won't cooperate with a breeding time program; they prefer to do their own thing. Thus, they are far more seasonal than the cooperative ducks. Don't know if this is true, but it sounds right. My favourite method is pan searing. For a really decadent dish. Cook a magret in the normal way. Then sear a couple of slices of foie gras in the same pan & serve on top of the sliced magret. Sheer heaven. Especially when accompanied by a fine Bordeaux or Madiran.

Zoe Don't worry about the lid. There's a picture of my green pot up in the first recipe post. It has a lid. It has always been my practice in the past to do the first cooking of the casoulette with the lid on. For the second cooking I start with the lid on then check the level of the juices after about half an hour. If they're low I add a bit of bean juice that I've saved or add some red wine if I don't have any bean juice left. If there's lots of juice then I leave the lid off & continue cooking. I then take the lid off for the last hour. Add the bread crumbs about half an hour before serving & that's it. ( NOTE: if you think you have too much juice then just do more bread crumbs and do two lots of them; that is spread a layer let them dry & colour then push them down and add a second & final layer.) On a side by side comparison I must say that we really couldn't tell the difference in taste between the open pot cassole cooked casoulette & the lid on green pot casoulette. Its just that the cassole is both more traditional & spectacular. I can't wait to see Chris's casoulette! Its bound to look great in the magnificent cassole. Eldereno - Your casoulette looks great. Could you tell a taste difference between the two types of bean? Preference? That bread looks wonderful, but you must have had a hungry crew for them to eat bread & casoulette! And appetizers and salad and birthday cake (congratulations by the way.) I'm impressed by your cooking & your capacity. edit: and cheese - I forgot.

Here's post #2 on the illustrated casoulette recipe. Actually its going to be 2&3 together since the casoulette has been made & eaten, but couldn't be posted due to eGullet being down for the upgrade. Anyway, here goes. (By the way I have posted a narrative version in RecipeGullet.) 1) Start by turning on the heat under the beans. Add the roughly chopped garlic. Also add some salt & pepper, but not much at this stage. Bring them to a boil & let boil for about 5 minutes. 2) at the same time put the cut up pork rind into a pan with water & bring it to a boil. Boil for 15-20 minutes. 3) In a large frying pan or, better yet, a deep pot start browning the meats in a small amount of fat (duck or goose fat is best, but olive oil will do nicely). Don't crowd the pan! fry until nicely browned a batch at a time. 4) while this is going on start cooking the sausage. First put the sausage in a large frying pan & add water until the sausage is roughly half covered. In the picture I've turned the inner ring of sausage, but not the outer - yet. Keep boiling until all the water evaporates turning the sausage over about half way through. Once the water just goes add some fat, not much, and keep cooking until the sausage skin browns nicely. Turn the sausage over as necessary. ( at the same time you are still browning batches of the pork & lamb - right?) 5) Once all the meats are browned turn down the heat & put all of the mirapoix in the pot. Give it a good stir to coat with the fat & cover the pot. The mirapoix should cook slowly for 15-20 minutes, until the carrots are soft & the onions are translucent. Be sure to give it a stir every so often. DO NOT let it brown! Browned meats. Sweated mirapoix ready to go. 6) Meanwhile you can be cutting up the sausage into bite sized chunks & getting your comfit ready. Cut up sausage comfit ready. note that I've left some fat. 7) While all this was going on you will have added the tomato paste & the herbs de Provence, thyme & juniper berries to the beans. The amount of each is up to your personal taste. I'm fairly heavy handed, but you may prefer a lighter touch. 8) When ready add the cooked mirapoix to the beans. You are now ready for the assembly! 9) Assembly. (I'll try to make the pictures work for this.) a) Using a slotted spoon add some beans to the cassole or whatever pot you are using. b) add the pork hock c) Add more beans & some sausage. d) Add the lamb shanks and the pork rind. e) More beans & sausage. Then the comfit. f) Final layer of beans! g) Now add liquid from the bean pot to cover everything. h) Ready for the oven!!! Put the casoulette into a 375 degree oven (about 165 C) for 2-3 hours. After about 1 1/2 hours pull it out & check the consistency of the beans. They should start to be a bit soft. Press down the top, take a spoonful of juice & check seasoning. Add salt & pepper as needed. Repeat this procedure about every half hour until the beans are just soft to bite. Take the casoulette out of the oven, let it cool then put it in the fridge (or anywhere cold, but not freezing) overnight. Part #3 No much here, but here are the final steps. No pictures as there's not that much to see. Besides I got very busy with other things as the casoulette was finishing off. That's one of the nice things about casoulette; during the finishing stage it doesn't require much attention so you can get on with other things. 1) take the casoulette out of the fridge about 4-5 hours before your planned serving time. 2) make 2-3 cups of bread crumbs. I like to use sour dough French bread, but any will do. I also like to add herbs de Provence, chopped parsley & garlic granules to the crumbs, but that's strictly optional. 3) Pre-heat the oven to about 375 (165C). 4) put the casoulette in about 2 hours before the planned serving time. 5) about one hour before serving time spread the bread crumbs over the top of the casoulette fairly evenly & press down slightly. (Note: the casoulette will probably have formed a crust by this time. If so, press this down firmly before spreading the bread crumbs. 6) Watch to make sure that the crumbs are browning nicely. If not a little top heat from the broiler will do the trick, but be careful. Better a light brown crust than a burnt one. Serve immediately. Since a full cassole of casoulette is pretty heavy we like to have our guests come into the kitchen to see it in all of it's glory. They can Ohh & Ahhh !! then go back to the table. Dish up the casoulette in the kitchen as it can be a bit messy. Use a long handled large spoon so you can dig down & try to give each plate a bit of every layer. We found that our new cassole would yield just 15 reasonable sized portions. (as you could see it was full to the brim) Fortunately, I had made a second casoulette in my old green pot. We had about 10 of the 15 come back for seconds. There was barely enough left for us to put into a much smaller pot & freeze for Linda & I to have at a later date. Enjoy yourself. The narrative recipe is now in RecipeGullet and this illustrated version is on my blog as below.

Cassoulet Serves 15 as Main Dish. Cassoulet originates in South West France where I live. It is a dish of nearly mythic proportions with several cities claiming to be it's true home. For all this cassoulet is a simple peasant dish and is easy to prepare; just take your time about it. Make it over several days & the dish will be better for it. Is my version authentic? Who knows; certainly the ingredients are all local and are all used in one or more of the various versions. My proudest moment was when our friends 83 year old Mother who only speaks Occitan asked for the recipe! The secret ingredient to making a good cassoulet is careful, loving preparation. Enjoy it with a group of hungry friends. 1) Vegetables 1 Large yellow onion 3 stalks of celery 3 medium size carrots 2) Dry & canned goods 1 tubes of tomato puree 500 grams of white (lingot) beans 1000 g (4 cuisse to the can) of confit de canard 3) Meats 500 g fresh Toulouse sausage 1 large ham hock (jarret) OR 2 smaller lightly salted ham hocks 3 or more Lamb shanks. If no shanks use bone in Lamb cutlets 4) Herbs -1+ head of garlic -Thyme to taste -Herbs de Provence to taste -10+ crushed juniper berries -Salt & Pepper 5) Misc. -Duck fat -Freshly made bread crumbs -Chopped parsley NOTES: Using the smaller quantities of ingredients this recipe will make a large Cassoulet filling my big green pot. (The green crock feeds 8 happily) My new cassole using the larger quantities fed 15, but the portions were not large. Most of them came back for seconds. Luckily I'd made a second cassoulet in the green pot. The Cassoulet freezes perfectly so don't be shy on quantity. Feel free to vary ingredients & quantities as you wish. Do not, however, be stingy with the herbs or garlic & remember that it’s the combination of meats that is important. Try to keep the ratios roughly the same as shown. Do be careful with the salt until near the end. Step by Step: (this is roughly the right order) A. Place all of the beans in a large pot & cover with 3-4 inches of water over the top of the beans. Cover pot & bring beans to the boil. Meanwhile skin, crush & roughly chop all of the garlic. Add to the beans. Boil beans for about 15 minutes. Turn off & let sit covered until you’re ready for them. (if you are using an unsalted ham hock lightly salt & pepper the beans at this point. if hocks salted then don’t) ALTERNATE: Soak the beans overnight & only boil for 2-3 minutes B. Cut the skin off of the ham hocks. If they are salted put in water & bring to the boil for 5 minutes, pour the water off, discard then proceed. In a large deep pot brown the hocks over high heat using some duck fat. Lightly season. Remove & set aside. (Cut the skin into about 1 cm wide strips. Cut 1 or 2 strips into 1/2 inch squares & save for later. The rest can be salted, put in a medium oven and turned into crackling. Cook’s bonus never makes it to table.) C.Place the Toulouse sausage in a large frying pan & add enough water to 1/3 cover them. Over high heat bring to the boil. Turn sausages when about ½ the water has boiled off. When dry prick the skins & add some duck fat to the pan. Sear until the sausages are nicely browned. Set aside. D.Put the lamb into the same pot with the same fat as you used to brown the hocks. Brown the lamb & set aside. E.Chop up the celery, onion & carrot fairly finely. Put in the same browning pot. Add fat if necessary & gently (low heat) sweat the vegs for 10-15 minutes. F.Add the vegs to the beans. Add the tomato purée to the beans. Stir well & taste for seasoning. Adjust if/as necessary. Add the rest of the herbs. Taste & adjust to your taste. (I like lots of herbs so am heavy handed, but you will be able to further adjust later so don’t overdo it at this stage.) G. Drain beans reserving all of the liquid. H. You now start to assemble the Cassoulet in the crock or pot that it will be cooked & served in. a. Spoon a layer of beans into the pot. b. Put the hock(s) in the middle of the pot. c. Add some more beans. d. Put the lamb in around the sides e. A few more beans. f. Add the pieces of ham skin. g. Cut up the sausage into 2-3 cm lengths & add ½ to the pot. h. Open the confit cans (if you didn’t earlier to get at the fat.) Wipe off as much fat as possible with your hands then arrange the cuisses around the pot. i. Add the rest of the sausage. j. Add the rest of the beans. k. Press everything down & adjust if necessary to fit the pot with a little room at the top. l. Pour in the reserved bean juice until it just covers the rest of the ingredients. NOTE: IF YOUR POT HAS A LID USE IT AT THIS STAGE. IF, LIKE CASSOLE, IT DOESN'T DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. JUST COOK UNCOVERED. m. Put the lid on & place the pot into a 180C. Oven for about 3 hours. n. Check periodically & push the cuisses back down gently as they tend to float up. Check seasonings & adjust if needed. o. Check beans for softness. If still a little hard add ½ hour to final cooking time. I. Take out of the oven & let stand until ready for the final preparation. A minimum of 3-4 hours is best; overnight in fridge even better. If overnight then take the Cassoulet out of the fridge about 2 hours before you want to start the final cooking. J. Allow 2 hours for final cooking PLUS any extra for beans. Longer cooking within reason won’t hurt. K. Make 3-4 cups of breadcrumbs & add chopped parsley & some herbs de Provence. (some garlic won't hurt either.) L. Put Cassoulet into a 180C. Oven. After ½ - ¾ hour check the juice level. M. If it’s not over the top of everything add some more bean juice. (If no bean juice left red wine will do instead.) N. If it’s way over then remove the lid & continue cooking. O. ½ hour before you want to serve sprinkle a good coating of breadcrumbs over the top & put back into the oven with the lid off. P. After 15 minutes push the crumbs down into the Cassoulet & spread the rest of them over the top. Q. When the top is nicely browned the Cassoulet is ready to serve. (A little top heat from the broiler may be needed to do the browning.) There you go! Cassoulet. It takes about an hour to get up to the first cooking stage. After that most of the cooking is unattended with a few quick checks & additions. You can do all of this in a day & serve that evening or you can take your time & spread the whole process over 3 days. This is what I did just before New Year. Day 1 prepared everything. Day 2 was the assembly and first cooking. All I had to do one day 3 was the final cooking & serving. A note on serving. We showed the casoulette to everyone so they could properly OH! & AHH! then we took it back to the kitchen for serving up as it can get a bit messy. Be sure you have a large long handled spoon ready for serving. The idea is to dig down through the layers to give each portion a bit of everything. Enjoy. Keywords: Main Dish, Lamb, Easy, Duck, Beans, Dinner, Pork, French ( RG1910 )

Chris I have no problem posting the recipe, but only one picture is sort of limiting with a recipe like this. Nevertheless, I'll have a go.

I've posted part #1 of a three part pictorial casoulette recipe on the Casoulette cookoff thread in the cooking topic today. You might be interested in the bean pictures & comments.

If interested please see my post today on the cooking forum; Casoulette cook- off thread. This tells of buying our cassole today & starts a three part pictorial casoulette recipe. Can't say my cassole is nearly as wonderful as Chris's, but its workman like, come from the source & the price was right.

OK, here goes. I'm doing my casoulette for 15 on Saturday. This post will be in three parts. Now: Today plus tonight's preparation work. Tomorrow: I'll put everything together & do the initial cooking. Saturday: Final cooking & serving. Today: Linda & I drove down to Castelnaudary to buy our cassole. (as you will see our big green pot won't hold casoulette for 15). The first shop I went into didn't sell cassoles although it looked like they should have. Anyway, they directed me to M. Vigoule's shop which I'd find down the hill on the right side of the square. I couldn't miss it as it was the one with flowers out front. Sure enough there it was; he sells potted plants, animal food, tropical fish, parrots and, yes, cassoles as well as lingots de Tarbias. I chose his largest model of cassole which is very workmanlike but not nearly as beautiful as the one chrisamirault recently got. Here are pictures of my faithful green pot (nearly 20 years old), the new cassole & the two together. The Green pot! New cassole! Pots together! While I was there I bought a kilo of lingot de Tarbias which he was selling in bulk. He was insistent that I couldn't make a proper casoulette without them. I'm not sure about that, but the price was right. Before I get too far with this I'd better give you a 'proper' recipe. Here it is: Ingredients: 1) Vegetables -1 Large yellow onion -3-4 stalks of celery -3-4 medium size carrots 2) Dry & canned goods -1-2 tubes of tomato purée -500- 750g of white (lingot) beans -1-2 cans (4 cuisse to the can) of comfit de canard 3) Meats -500-750g fresh Toulouse sausage -1 large ham hock (jarret) OR 2 smaller lightly salted ham hocks -4 or more Lamb shanks. If no shanks use bone in Lamb cutlets 4) Herbs -1+ head of garlic -Thyme to taste -Herbs de Provence to taste -10+ crushed juniper berries -Salt & Pepper 5) Misc. -Duck fat -Freshly made bread crumbs -Chopped parsley -Walnut oil (about 2 tblsp) NOTES: Using the smaller quantities of ingredients this recipe will make a large Casoulette filling my big green pot. If, however, you would like to make more then up the quantities as you wish. (The green crock feeds 8 happily) The Casoulette freezes perfectly. So, when we got home I laid out my meats. Lamb shanks, a pork hock & about a pound of Toulouse sausage. Next I skinned the pork hock as below; I was trying to get as little fat or meat as possible with the skin. Once the skin was off I cut it into strips & then rough squares. Not too neat as you can see. Observe the strips both skin & fat side up & the 'squares'. I'll use the three strips in the casoulette & make the remainder into crackling. Next came the mirapoix preparation as below: I'm perfectly aware that few, if any, "classic' casoulette recipes call for a mirapoix. I think, however, that adding one in makes a big & positive difference. The vegetable addition seems to lighten things a bit without losing any of the rich meat & bean flavours. I would contend that the mirapoix adds flavour. "chaque une a son gout" or something like that as they say. Next the beans went in the pot to soak overnight. (I don't always do this. You can achieve the desired softening by bringing the beans to a boil from cold, boiling for 15 minutes & then letting them sit in the water for 2-3 hours.) Anyway. Potted beans. Close up of beans. (The camera didn't do a good job on the colour.) These Tarbias look just like Great Northerns to me. So far I can't really tell a taste difference. Somebody needs to do a side by side cook off. I'll do the cooking if somebody wants to come over with the beans.) Finally, tonight I got out the rest of the ingredients, except for the comfit, and lines them up ready. You can't see the garlic very well because its some scraps I had. Serves as a good reminder to go to the village store first thing in the morning & buy some more. The only things I haven't shown are: The comfit, fresh thyme, parsley, the juniper berries and the breadcrumbs. Tomorrow, I promise. PS: when I've finished this I will post it as one continuitous post on my blog.

Cahors is good. But you might like to try to find a nice Corbiers. It comes from the same region as the main casoulette towns & really works well with it. Let it breath well & you'll be delighted.

I agree with Chris; use all of them. I'm using 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) to make casoulette for 15 on Saturday. After the beans have soaked tonight I'll decide whether I need more or not. If you are worried just add some of the readily available Great Northerns. They work fine & should hardly be noticeable id you use up to 1/2 pound within the 2 lbs of lingots. Good Luck.

Nutcracker I have one in this style that was made in France and purchased for me in Germany. I love it! It cracks all the nuts, even hazelnuts, without spraying nuts and shells all over. It has a good record of cracking the shell and leaving the nut whole as well. Not too much force is required for even hard nuts. I highly recommend this type of nutcracker, but I have no experience with that particular brand or that online store. ← Yes, yes, yes!! We bought one of these this year & loved it so much that we bought several more to give to friends as Christmas presents. By far the best nutcracker we've ever used. Its also great for opening Champagne bottles.